Hello Foxes!
How is your April going? I am powering through the revisions. Book 2 of the Whisperers trilogy, is complete and in decent (I think) shape! On to book 3…
The first round of revisions is probably my favourite stage of editing. (Providing I actually have a book to work with, not a disaster pile of crap that somehow manages to go in every direction except the correct one and may not even have the right POV character. Oh, it’s happened.)
First round revisions are fun. I’ve made a smash draft, where I tore at my hair, wailed and despaired of ever finishing the project. The pressure to make something out of nothing is off. Over. (Thank goodness.) And it’s still far enough from publishing that the pressure to make it perfect hasn’t kicked in yet. I get to fix problems with defined boundaries, laugh at some of my sentences from mad midnight scrabbling at the keyboard, and enjoy the odd surprise when I find a cool thing I’d forgotten writing, like Keraun showing up and causing havoc with an illusion of a hairy spider. (Ew. Why, Keraun, why?)
Book 2: The Lies We Whisper
Since Lies is what I’ve been working on since we last caught up, I’ll tell you a bit about the book! It follows straight on from The Secrets We Save.
The Lies We Whisper is a political intrigue in the same high fantasy gaslamp setting as Secrets, except rather than the usual fantasy monarchy and bitter family rivalries, Acrusi is governed by a democracy of sorts, and the drama concerns an upcoming election for a government seat and the dangerous political machinations of those who want to seize more power than is their due.
And shock of all shocks, I think it might be too short! But since I very rarely manage to write anything that is actually short, I don’t know. It is novel length, so it’s met that criterion. Maybe it’s fine?
Anyway, in case you missed it, Secrets is coming to Kickstarter in July, so if hand-illustrated romantic gaslamp shenanigans sound like fun, sign up to get notified when the campaign goes live!
Speaking of hand-illustrated…
Ah, the terror. I have completed two paintings so far, and the second was definitely easier than the first (honestly, whose foolish idea was it to give the main character blue and white streaked hair?!). Now I am staring at the first wash of the third, which will be a waterfall scene, and…
The terror.
Can you even see anything yet? Probably not. It’s a pale wash of blue and yellow paint, and anything could happen. Worst case scenario is I waste a piece of paper and start again, which, yes, yes, I know, not exactly world-ending stakes, but still.
Ebook Shopping!
Those of you who actually keep track of things like what day of the week it is (not me, most of the time) may have noticed that I’m sending my newsletter, rather unusually, on a Saturday (or veeeeery early on Sunday in Aus), and it’s because of this:
Go check out the list of absolutely awesome indie books all on varying degrees of sale. Darkhaven is in there, of course, so if you haven’t snagged it yet, now’s the time!
Alternatively, if your e-reader is already full or the prospect of winning stuff is more your speed for the day, you may be interested in this:
And finally, for the voracious reader, I’ve recently discovered a pretty cool site called Read Freely, where they round up discounted indie titles and will even email you a daily selection if you so desire.
If all that doesn’t sate your book collecting needs (I am told collecting books and reading books are two completely unrelated hobbies), I don’t know what will!
Hopefully you’re busily soaking up books now, so I’ll leave you to it. Feel free to tell me what you’re reading, though. I’m always keen to know!
Happy reading!
Kel